SHUAIB ASGHAR
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
GOVT. RAZVIA ISLAMIA COLLEGE
GOVT. RAZVIA ISLAMIA COLLEGE
HAROONABAD, PAKISTAN
Exceptional Individual
Like other tragic heroes of Shakespeare, Hamlet is also endowed with
exceptional qualities like royal birth, graceful and charming personality and
popularity among his own countrymen. He has a high intellectual quality as
Ophelia observes
O what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
The
courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword,
The
expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The
glass of fashion, and the mould of form,
The
observed of all observers.
The Tragic Flaw
Like a true Aristotelian hero Hamlet has a tragic flaw in his
character. He thinks too much and feels too much. He is often disturbed by his
own nature of self analysis. Coleridge says that his enormous intellectual
activity prevents instant action and the result is delay and irresolution. Bradley
is of the view that his thoughts are diseased thoughts. What is required of
Hamlet is prompt action, whereas he broods over the moral idealism, which leads
to his delay in action. When he gets an opportunity to kill Claudius, he puts
aside the thought because he cannot strike an enemy while he is at prayer. He
feels he should kill Claudius
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage
Or in th' incestuous
pleasure of his bed,
At game swearing.
Causes For Inaction
By nature he is prone to think rather than to act. He is a man of
morals and his moral idealism receives a shock when his mother remarries
Claudius after his father's death. Chance, too, plays an important part in
shaping his character. Chance places him in such a position in which he is
incapable of doing anything. He feels sad at his position and says
The time is out of joint. O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right.
Conflict--- Internal And External
Like other tragic heroes Hamlet has to face conflict, internal and
external. The internal conflict is in his moral scruples and the act of
revenge. Love of his father, the dishonor of his mother, and the villainy of
his uncle prompts him to take revenge while his nobility, his moral idealism,
his principles, and his religion revolts against such a brutal act. The result
is that, torn within himself, he suffers mental torture.
The
external conflict is with Claudius--the murderer of Hamlet's father. Claudius
is a smiling villain, a seducer and a usurper of his rights to Denmark's
throne. He is one against whom he has to take revenge. The other incidents of
external conflicts are with Laertes, his friend and the brother of his beloved
Ophelia; with Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, his former school fellows and
friends but present enemies.
Character Or Destiny?
Character is not the only factor that is responsible for the tragedy of
Hamlet. External circumstances should also be kept in the analysis. Many of the
things that take place in Hamlet's life are by chance but none of these
improbable. He kills Polonius by chance. The ship in which he travels is
attacked by pirates and his return to Denmark in nothing but chance. But the
sense of fate is never so overwhelming as to cast character in shade. After
all, it is Hamlet himself who is responsible for his tragedy.
Though
Hamlet possesses all the qualities of Shakespeare's tragic hero, yet he is
different from the other. He is the only tragic hero who evokes the sympathy of
the readers at all times. As Hazlitt remarks, ‘The distresses of Hamlet are transferred by the
turn of his mind, to the general account of humanity. Whatever happens to him,
we apply to ourselves’. This is what makes Hamlet universal as well as a
unique hero.
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